MAXIMO N. VALLADARES, APPELLANT,
v.
THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 2004-11-24
No. 3D02-2893
Before COPE and GODERICH, JJ„ and NESBITT, Senior Judge.
891 So. 2d 567 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (2004)

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.


Holding

The court held that the trial court did not err in excluding defense witness testimony, denying a mistrial, or denying a motion for judgment of acquittal.


Facts & Procedural History

The defendant was convicted of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, and armed burglary. The defense sought to introduce testimony from …

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

Maximo N. Valladares appeals his convictions for first degree murder, attempted first degree murder, and armed burglary. We affirm.

The trial court correctly excluded the testimony of the defense witness, Dr. Alexander Roy. The trial court correctly ruled that the proposed testimony amounted to a defense of diminished capacity, which is not recognized in Florida. See State v. Bias, 653 So. 2d 380, 382-83 (Fla.1995); Chestnut v. State, 538 So. 2d 820, 824 (Fla.1989).

Defendant-appellant Valladares argues that once the court decided to exclude Dr. Roy testimony, the court should have granted a mistrial because the defense case had been prepared on the premise that Dr. Roy would testify. The trial court carefully considered the motion for mistrial and correctly concluded that, to the extent the defense may have proceeded differently had it known that Dr. Roy’s testimony would be excluded, the defendant was not harmed thereby. Under the circumstances of this case, the denial of the motion for mistrial was within the court’s discretion. See Chamberlain v. State, 881 So. 2d 1087, 1098 (Fla.2004); Smithers v. State, 826 So. 2d 916, 930 (Fla.2002).

The defendant complains of a discovery violation by the State. The trial court ruled in the defendant’s favor on this point and granted an appropriate remedy. See Cohen v. State, 581 So. 2d 926, 928 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991). As an appropriate remedy was ordered, there is no reversible error. The trial court correctly denied the motion for judgment of acquittal with regard to the charge of attempted first degree murder of Lazaro Valladares. Viewing the evidence in the required light, the evidence was legally sufficient. See Pagan v. State, 830 So. 2d 792, 803 (Fla.2002).

Affirmed.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw